This Week at Our House # 47

1. Well, it was Thanksgiving week. On Thanksgiving John shot targets with the boys, and started them on a couple of wood working projects. He is going to help them make a wooden box and whittle some wooden spoons. John volunteered to do the dishes after thanksgiving dinner.
2. I only spent one day in the garden digging, but two to three full days in the kitchen cooking and cleaning. I got my website for our adventure in this house up, as well as a Facebook page. I do not intend to keep up on it like it is a business. It's just informative. I have stopped writing for United Families International and am doing this instead.I spent years in family politics because that is was I knew the Lord wanted me to be doing. I feel called in a different direction. My new website is briarhovel. The facebook page is here.
3. Ruth has not been good at communicating. I think we will need to talk to her a little about that. It's a good thing Christmas is coming!
4. Kate cooked up a storm. She made the most delicious orange rolls and her pie crust was perfect! She has become a very good baker.
5. This was our first week of our holiday vacation. We start school Aug 1st, and do not have a fall break or any other days off so we can take two long vacations. One in summer and one for the holidays. We will be basically off school until the new year. We still have reading everyday, though. Johnny enjoyed his first week of vacation by playing a lot of games with whoever he could get. John still made him do math though. When John is the teacher, no one gets vacation.
6. Adam cut his wood spoon wrong and was really sad about that. John says they will have plenty of mistakes with woodworking until they have gotten enough practice to do it well.
7. I feel like I have not seen Rachel much this week. She has been hiding away playing with her legos. 
8. Anya spent the first week of her vacation reading FableHaven 2. I was delighted to see her reading just because she was enjoying her book.
9. Whenever I go outside, Joseph joins me. He loves to be outdoors. John has cleared a lot of the briars out of the woods, so that is a nice place for the kids to play now.
10. Joshua has been writing little things, and drawing pictures to go with them.
11. Josh and Arwen found a large (and I really mean large) dead spider. Arwen came to me and said mom, you have to see it. It is a big spider. It is not poisonous. It is a tarantulata. (like tarantula+ enchilada) It was not a tarantula, though, but size wise, it could have been.
12. I am back to potty training Susan (still not going well, blah). I asked her, "Where do you go pee and poop?" She stuck her naked bum in the air, pointed to it and said, "right there!" She knows what to do. She just doesn't want to be bothered. I knew she was a stubborn little one, I did not know she would be this stubborn.
13. Samuel goes through the kitchen everyday pulling out the dishes and silverware. Whenever I do the dishes, he pulls the dirty dishes out of the dishwasher. He will walk around the house with a bowl and a fork a lot.

Pictures

The kids homemade bird nest complete with eggs (rocks)

for my new website

A falcon came to visit

Stories from Ruth #10

We had a crazy day today! We had an investigator call us randomly this morning and said he needed to meet with us. We met with him and taught him for a long time because he knows like no English. Then we had a lesson  we didn't plan on teaching because he seemed very unsold and it was amazing! He is going to pray and read the Book of Mormon tonight and he listened to the conference talk I gave him to the first day we met him! It was kind of crazy. 

I saw this kid biking and felt like I needed to talk to him. And I thought well if he stops for no reason I will talk to him. As soon as I thought that he dropped something and stopped. So we talked to him. It was a long conversation where we mostly had to stand there and testify of the Book of Mormon and God since he believes in science. One question he asked today was why would God let him and so many others grow up in a society where they are taught that only science can answer questions and proves there is no God. He meant it sincerely, and I know the answer, but I just don't know how to simply answer it. Well after reading scriptures and testifying to him he said he will pray and was actually grateful to accept a Book of Mormon!

We had another lesson tonight with a guy who loves Mormons but says he is unlikely to ever be one. We met him coming home after curfew when a bike seat cover flew out of my hand and he picked it up. Long story short he is now going to fhe and agreed to read the Book of Mormon.

Thanksgiving 2017 was DELICIOUS!

Seriously, I think we have gotten a lot better at cooking. Everything we made came out perfectly, and everything we made was completely homemade. We bought only ingredients, nothing prepackaged or made at the store. We even made the bread for the stuffing. We also bought 4 turkeys because they are so cheap this time of year, but we only cooked one.

We have not had much food, at least as far as the amount people want verses the amount they are getting. So I decided to bite the bullet and just buy what we needed to have good Thanksgiving dinner. Well, we have tons and tons of wonderful, delicious leftovers. Sometimes lots of hard work really pays off!!!

This Week at Our House # 46

1. John is cleaning out our woods, so they will be a nice place for the family to gather. They had a lot of garbage in them, and tons of briars. He has removed a lot of both. John gathers us together a couple of times everyday and teaches us from the scriptures and the words of the prophets. Our kids are so good because they have a good dad who leads them in righteousness. This was not something I thought much about while I was dating. I wanted to marry someone who read his scriptures regularly and tried to understand them, but I did not understand what a blessing that would be for children. Our kids love and respect their dad. They bring their scriptures to him to talk about what they are reading. I am really blessed to have this in my home.
2. I homeschooled, transplanted a lot of trees (10 I think) and continued to dig in my garden. Today I took a long walk with some of the kids to see some cows. I love living out in the country.
3. Ruth didn't write much because she was busy proselyting.
4. Kate has been frustrated with me because I have been doing yard work when she wants me to be walking with her. 
5. Johnny is a top notch cookie baker. He makes cookies for the family several days a week. Suzy just came in crying that she needed her cookies, so Johnny is in the kitchen mixing up cookie dough. (Homemade too, by the way.)
6. Food has become pretty competitive in this house and I think it is because Adam the Eater is a teenager. 
7. Rachel LOVES playing legos with Kate, Johnny, Adam, and Anya. They have a lego world that is quite interesting and complex. 
8. Anya goes to sleep when she thinks something is boring. She does this during history, so she knows a lot less about American History than all of our other school kids.
9. Joseph is a smart kid. Often I feel like he is not paying attention, but then it turns out he knows more about what I was teaching than Adam, Anya, and Rachel.
10. Joshua discovered where I keep the toys in the garage, so he has brought Arwen and Susan in there to play with him. I think that is good. I was hoping with buying such a small house the kids would use the large yard and the large garage for space to play. He discovered the dress up and it was pretty cute to see him running through the yard in a dinosaur costume.
11. Arwen has been drawing and coloring full pages of very intricate pictures. She saw Rachel do that and then asked her for her pictures so she could see how to do it. She mailed one of her nicest pictures to Ruth.
12. I went through winter clothes and found a princess nightgown from my sister's daughter. I knew Susan would like it, so I just put it in her clothes. She found it and was very put out that I would not let her wear her "princess" to church.
13. Sam had his birthday and instead of grabbing the candle like we expected, it scared him and then he didn't want to eat his cake. 

Pictures

lego world

There are a lot of vultures around here

a vulture

a dressed up kitten, but she was purring. Arwen named her Ella.

Stories From Ruth #9

Ruth didn't have time to send out emails last week. We just got a couple of lines. Obviously, she is taking the work very seriously.

Sorry this is going to be another lame email. I have been everywhere today. So we were planning on writing our emails at night and just chilling after doing our Proselyting work during the day. However we both felt like we needed to go to fhe instead tonight and turns out there was an investigator and her cousin there and we were the only two who talked to them and helped them. One is on date actually, but the elders had an appointment so they could not come to fhe with them. It's crazy the Lord has led us so much this week and to so many different places. We even couldn't get our door to lock until we left the flat to go find.

The Baby Turns 1!!!

I always feel a little sad when my baby turns one. I love that first year. I love the cuddles, and first smiles, I love watching little babies discover things. Sam was the sweetest little guy and he was the sweetest little baby. I loved my first year with him.

This Week at Our House # 45

1. John's job could not get funding renewed for his contract, so he is looking for a new contract once more. That is the nature of contract work as we have learned over the last 3 years. It can be very rough. But we know all too well that while it seems very hard, all will be well. The Lord is mindful of our needs and can do all things. John has made a lot of progress on the wood floor. We are now into the kitchen. I think it will be pretty tough from here til the end as there are several nooks and hard cuts.
2. I have started working on a new website about our inexpensive home and trying to grow our own food and living a more natural life. We need our home "Briarhovel Homestead" because it is inexpensive and there are plenty of briars in the woods. When I get it going more, I will post it up here. I worked on that website, cooking a whole lot to feed this family, getting us the rest of the way unpacked, and pulling out sod to make room for a garden this week as well as full time schooling and all of the regular chores and errands. I put cardboard and the net from our old trampoline on the flower beds to keep weeds from growing. In the spring I will get them planted and put some pine mulch from our woods. I am trying to find poison free ways to take care of the weeds and the garden. I want to have an organic home and yard as much as possible. I also have plans to get chickens and ducks and maybe a milk goat.
3. I love hearing from Ruth every week. I get an email on Monday or Tuesday. Those are the days to look forward to each week now. 
4. Kate is reading the History of Church and learning so much. She is always telling us what she is reading about. She plays with the all of the kids a lot and helps around the house. She will be leaving on a mission in under a year and is so excited for that.
5. Johnny is always doing things to help around the house. He has been making cookies for the family almost everyday for lunch. Homemade cookies are our least expensive lunch. Johnny has learned to use the table saw fairly well even though it terrifies him. He has done a few of the hardest cuts for the floor.
6. Adam loves to eat, so he is motivated to cook. He has learned how to cook eggs recently, and he often makes different forms of chocolate milk and hot chocolate. John loves this and often asks Adam to make him a snack.
7. Kate over heard this funny conversation between Anya and Rachel. Anya was trying to wake Rachel up probably because Rachel'll sleep til noon if we let her. Being delirious, I expect, Rachel happily popped up and said, "It's Friday!!!" Anya responded, "No, it's Wednesday." Rachel, in the most tragic voice you can think of, said,  "No Not Wednesday!" and then rolled over in bed and sobbed.
8. Anya's grandmother bought her an American Girl Doll that came in the mail this week. She watched for it diligently everyday before it came. She even seemed to brighten the mail lady's day when she burst out excited for package to arrive. When it came she played American Girl Dolls with Rachel and Kate for 2 hours. She is a very happy little girl. During science this week, Anya called transition metals, "tradition metals" and gamma radiation, "gramma radiation"while being quizzed on the definitions.
9. Joseph wasn't the one to pull down the shower curtain in the bathroom or to pull down the curtain in the bedroom, but he was the one to pull on the cord to the modem, dropping it on the floor, just because there was a cord that could be pulled. Joseph was the only one sent out into the rain to run off his energy, so the rest of us could live peaceably inside. 
10. Joshua called safety pins, "protection pins" because he forgot their name. Joshua talks constantly and asks a gazillion questions. Two of his more interesting questions were how much are whales worth, and how many birds does it take to make a tornado?
11. Arwen says funny things all of the time. She doesn't think they are funny at all. In fact, she is often very serious about what she says, but this week, we have collected a treasure of Arwen sayings. 1)While looking over bridge into murky still water, she said, "Ah Kate, you know whats in that? Definitely crocodiles, you know. And they eat kids!" 2)"Kate, dolls can't have families because they are only dolls, but they can be friends if you are nice to them". 3) "Kids don't want to be dead. Is that right Dad? Crocodiles want you to be dead, ... or eaten." 4)Sam's not the only one that can bite everything. Susan can bite. Susan bites everybody. Sam bites everybody too. Sam bites me, mom ...But crocodiles don't know what people taste like. They don't know. Right Dad?" And the grand finally #5) Referring to bedtime, "I think I'm going to be afraid of that, so you can't make me do it." 
12. Susan shares a room with Sam now and all of our bedtime problems have been resolved. She just goes to bed when Sam goes to bed and she doesn't get into everyone's things anymore. 
13. Samuel turns one tomorrow. My little baby is not so little anymore. He never was. He has always been my biggest baby by far. He is over 21 lbs (the same weight that most of his sisters were at 2.) He loves to eat, and pull things out of the cupboards. I need to remember to video tape his darling little toddler walk. I love watching him stomp around the house. We don't have any indoor stairs in our new home and that has been nice. No more stair climbing for Sam. But I am amazed to see him easily pull himself up onto chairs and benches. 

Pictures

This is part of our front yard. Amongst thos pine shrubs that kids have made a little village with store fronts.

Why the name Briarhovel

Our yard is just so beautiful. It's hard to believe we got this place for $50,000

This is in the back yard with the grapevines (that will make good juice)

John really likes the brick wall papers with the wall paper pictures in the living room so they will stay.